


Choices, Choices

by East_Of_Akkala



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Child Timeline, Crack, F/M, Humor, Post-Canon, Shirking of Duty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:20:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27812932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/East_Of_Akkala/pseuds/East_Of_Akkala
Summary: Zelda realizes the hard way that while there are now five distinct Links, they still have a lot in common. Such as a common target to their romantic interest…
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Choices, Choices

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wrote this when I was a fandom baby, back when I was probably too young to be involved in fandoms and DEFINITELY too young to be inflicting my writing on the world. This is the third version of the same story, and hopefully the best (or at least the least bad). 
> 
> As a quick intro, this takes place in a universe where the Links did not fuse back together at the end of the Four Swords Manga. And Shadow's here too, since I enjoyed writing him. 
> 
> Enjoy!

It was a beautiful morning in the gardens outside of Hyrule Castle. Zelda, princess of Hyrule and recent survivor of Ganon's invasion, had decided to take advantage of the quiet and spend some time with her thoughts in the quiet. 

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath of the morning air, smiling. Hyrule was already healing nicely from its recent troubles with Vaati and Ganon alike. There were still more monsters than normal and she'd lost far too many brave knights in the process, but overall her beloved land and its people had emerged unscathed. She'd even managed to keep the castle this time, a stroke of luck which hadn't been afforded to the last of her ancestors who'd tangled with Ganon. 

"Hey, Zelda!" cried a familiar voice. 

Zelda's private thoughts receded as soon as she heard the new sound. She opened her eyes again to see Link--no, wait, Green Link, since there were four of them now--walking towards her cheerfully. She wondered for a moment why he was here; he was supposed to be in guard duty in town. After a moment, however, she dismissed her question. This was Green she was wondering about. Even though his quest to rescue her from Vaati and Ganon had made him a better team player, he'd still retained the independent streak he'd always had. Of course he'd still skip guard duty every once in a while.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" she asked by way of greeting, nonetheless smiling at her friend.

He shrugged. "I left Red in charge. I wanted to ask you something first!" 

"Go ahead?" 

He looked around quickly, then sat down next to her, a shy look creeping across his face. "Well, Zelda, I was thinking…I wanted to say…"

"Yes?" she pressed.

"Do you want to stroll through the garden with me?" he asked suddenly, dropping the previous thread of the conversation. 

"Oh! Of course, Li-Green," she said warmly, correcting herself quickly and standing up. He did the same and the two set off, Green walking quite close to her. "Now then, what did you want to say?"

"Oh, n-nothing," he said. 

"Oh, come on, I'm sure it was something," she persisted. 

"Well, if you insist--"

"Hey, Zelda!" called another voice, interrupting the two. Zelda turned around to see Red coming from the opposite direction holding a bouquet of flowers. He thrust it into her arms with a bright smile.

"I picked them for you myself!" he chirped excitedly.

"Th-thanks, Red…" she said, a little taken aback by this sudden display of affection. 

Perhaps sudden, but not unexpected, coming from Red, she thought to herself. The red-clad hero did such things for her rather often. Even so, the flowers were just a bit too nice to be just a gesture of friendship. 

"Hey, what're you doing here?" Green demanded, crossing his arms. "I left you at the gate in Castle Town!" 

"Yeah, well, I wanted to visit Zelda," replied Red blithely. "The flowers don't last forever, y'know!"

"But I was visiting Zelda!" 

"Hey, two of us can visit her, can't we?"

Zelda stepped back, watching the back-and-forth with some amusement, still holding the flowers. An idea of what was going on was beginning to form in her head. She'd observed that the four Links were often on the same wavelength, often coming to the same conclusion at the same time. She'd already spent a lot of time breaking up squabbles which inevitably emerged as a result, with one or both or however many insisting (just as an example) they'd been there to buy that shield first. She still didn't know how their father remained sane. Then again, the man had been through a great deal at the hands of Shadow Link. Perhaps four bickering boys were nothing to him in comparison.

"Zelda!"

Well, this is not a coincidence, she realized. Yet another Link, this one wearing blue, had just appeared at her shoulder, a big grin on his face. 

"Hello, Blue," she said, 

"You should come spar with me!" Blue cried, interrupting her train of thought as he grabbed her free hand and pulled her off the bench she had formerly been sitting on. "I don't know a better way to spend time with you!"

"Oh dear…" she trailed off, amusement beginning to fade. 

"Wait a minute!" Red cried. "I left you in town!"

"Yeah, yeah, I told Vio to do it." Blue waved a hand. "I wanted to see Zelda."

"But we were here first, Blue!" Green protested. 

"That's not my problem!"

"You're a jerk," pouted Red.

"Also not my problem!" He turned back to the princess. "Now, then, Zelda, let's go! Next time Shadow shows up you can beat him up yourself." 

"She did a fine job on her own this time!" Green protested.

For her part, Zelda shrank back, sighing. This had been funny at first, but now she was ready to be be left alone with her own thoughts again. Was one morning to herself really too much to ask for? With at least two Links wanting her attention and a third presenting her with flowers, she supposed so.

"Hello, Zelda. You're exactly who I was looking for."

By now it did not surprise her to see Vio at her shoulder. Of course. Since three of the Links were already there, it would only stand to reason that the fourth was just behind them.

"Want to come with me to the library?" he asked in that eternally calm tone of his. To Blue, it could be mocking, but it always held the utmost respect when he spoke to her. "I know a book I think you'd like."

"That actually sounds nice," she admitted. Even though she had been enjoying some time out of doors, the library would probably be a bit quieter than the gardens had become with the presence of three bickering Links. And as much as she wanted a bit of alone time, Vio was quiet enough that it might feel like alone time.

"Hey! You're not supposed to be here!" Blue shouted, suddenly noticing his fourth clone.

"Yeah, didn't Blue leave you on guard duty?" asked Red.

"After I left you on guard duty," pointed out Green.

"I don't know what any of you are talking about," Vio said. "I woke up early this morning to go to the library." 

Make that four bickering Links. 

"Wait a minute," said Blue. "I--saw you! I know it was you!"

"Clearly, as usual, you didn't know," the purple-clad Link rebutted. 

"But I know I--"

"Hee hee hee! If it isn't my favorite princess!"

All four Links and Zelda jumped when Shadow Link suddenly appeared behind all of them in a cloud of darkness. Zelda couldn't help herself when she flattened herself against the nearest bush. He'd kidnapped her, for Hylia's sake! While he'd been fairly innocuous since returning, he'd still done a bit of minor terrorizing. Vio had told her at one point that in the end, he'd seen the light, something she was willing to accept at face value. That said, she was not happy to see her in the garden. 

"Well, that explains it," commented Green. "Hi, Shadow. Why'd you impersonate Vio again anyway?"

He shrugged. "It seemed fun. Anyway, I'm not here for you guys." He turned around to Zelda, flashing a rather creepy smile which was probably intended to be impishly charming. "Want me to kidnap you again? Then we could have some time alone together." 

"Absolutely not!" thundered Green and Blue at once from behind them before Zelda had a chance to answer. Given she had been planning to say something similar, it was probably for the best. 

"Hey, I was just kidding!" he cried, holding up his hands. 

"Well, it's not funny!" Blue growled. 

"No, it isn't!" agreed Red. 

"You could've tried a different tack," Vio chimed in.

Zelda just sighed and took the opportunity to slip away to a different part of the garden. Clearly, Link had had a crush on her before he'd split up, a crush which had been transferred to all five new Links. There were worse things, she supposed, though she could do without the arguing. 

And of course, now she'd need to find someone for guard duty to cover the errant Links. 

**Author's Note:**

> Well, there you have it. I'm actually not sure if I'd ever come back to this, largely because I don't know who Zelda would pick, if anyone. Or if she's interested. All that is up to her, I guess. 
> 
> Please leave a comment/kudo if you enjoyed!


End file.
